sending faxes to Europe?
 

I'd like to attempt at making hotel reservations via the fax. has anyone done this? Is it impossible to do without a fax machine in the house? for example, if I went to Kinko's to fax something, would they have to fax me back, or could they call me to confirm? how does it usuall work?

also, when faxing, should i assume it's the same as a phone call? that is, drop the zero, add the country code, etc? and, it's the same as a long distance phone call, right? in other words, if i faxed it from work, they'd kill me, right?

You could fax it and ask for confirmation via e-mail.

You would want a confirmation of your reservation. They won't phone you but you could ask them to email you a confirmation. If you are concerned about giving credit card info over an email (you obviously have computer access to post here) you could provide all but one necessary piece of info (like exp date) on the email and then just fax the expiration date.

Yes, faxing using the same protocol as phoning and it is a long distance call. Whether they'd kill you, I don't know :)

I don't know how your fax charges are monitored at your office. At mine we have a cheap rate for overseas faxes because we do that a lot anyway. I have a standing offer on record to reimburse the company for any personal faxes or long distance calls--they've yet to ask me to do that.

I'm assuming you would be faxing because the hotel doesn't have email?
You can ask them to fax you back, (yes, you'll have to pay Kinkos or mailboxesUSA for that), or ask them to call, or ask them to fax back to your office--that shouldn't cost anything to your office.

It now occurs to me maybe the property doesn't have a computer/email. In that case, you could ask them to fax you a confirmation at your office (it doesn't cost the office anything if you receive a fax :)

every modem I've had has let me send faxes directly from the computer. I write up the document in word and fax (if e-mail is not an option). And I can receive faxes on-line too. No need to use Kinkos.

And yes - dial the number as you would a phone call.

FAX? E-Mail is free!
M

The first time I made hotel reservation by Fax, in 1998, I did it at Kinko's. It was a real nuisance, because I had to go back to Kinko's every day to pick up the replies. By the next trip, a year later, I'd bought a cheap Fax machine. I didn't have a computer yet at the time. I had a Yahoo e-mail address, which I used at the publidc library, but I found that at the time, many hotels were not e-mail users yet, or if they did use e-mail, it was from the e-address of another business in the area, or an employee's personal e-mail, and not the hotel's e-mail. It was so much easier when I had my own Fax. Now that I have a computer, sometimes I make my initial inquiry by e-mail, if I can find an e-mail address, and then I send my credit card # by Fax. On the Fax, I ask for a confirmation, and I give my home address, home phone and Fax # (the same # in my case) and e-mail address, and let the hotel choose how to reply. Some smaller non-urban places are still not comfortable with Internet, but those that are probably like to save money by avoiding the phone fees for a Fax. There's one place that I can only deal with by phone, because they don't confirm anything in writing and I just have to take their word that there's room. (It's a small agriturismo in Sicily, on the oputskirts of a little town I like to visit, so that's the only place I can stay.)

MissZ:You obviously have access to a computer whats the problem?Why fax?

I think there are some free fax services you can use over the web. You get return faxes as email attachments.

Hi miss Z,

There are firms which will allow you to send email to FAX machines.

Try
http://www.ourfax.com/

If you dial 1016868 before the 011 you can make phone calls to Europe for about $0.10/min

thank you for the very helpful replies!!

the reason i am faxing in lieu of e-mailing is because none of my italian accomodations have e-mail, just fax. (with the exception of one--the Casa Santo Nome di Gesu which i found via this board. i tried the e-mail address but it was invalid). I'm going to try www.ourfax.com, and if that fails, Kinkos'--i didn't go you can RECEIVE faxes from kinko's. very neat..i live in nyc and there are tons of kinko's here.

I don't have a fax machine at my house either, and didn't want personal faxes coming into my work fax machine. So I went to my local Rite Aid store and paid $1 to fax a confirmation to an Italian hotel for September. Since I did not have a fax machine for them to send the reply/confirmation back, I asked them to email me. EVEN IF the hotel doesn't have email service, they will find a way to reply/confirm. In my case, they used a sister property to send me a reply email so everything is done.

For your fax to Italy, you just dial out directly: 011-39-then city code-then phone number.

I have used Kinkos several times to fax my hotel reservation info. I always got an email confirmation from them (hotel)later. I do not have a fax machine set up on my computer. I have high speed cable connection and don't know if that is even compatible with a fax machine...?

I have known a couple small, rural hotels that still won't confirm by email, either. I just use my office FAX for sending and receiving, my boss is laid back and doesn't care. It's only a few dollars. I don't know why it would be unacceptable to receive a FAX at work (although in a big office, you might worry about missing it), a hotel confirmation isn't personal.

I used to have some FAX software on my computer and used it, but my new one does not have it by default. I don't think it is automatic that you can do that if you have a computer, you have to have the right software, I thought. The FAX package I have by default on my machine now is really un-user friendly and doesn't save copies of what you send, so I don't use it.

There are some other free services I've heard of for receiving FAXEs -- I think www.jfax.com is one of the most popular. Sometimes hotels won't actually FAX you at the number you give them in the text if it is different than the one you used to send, though, just a warning. They just sort of automatically send it to the number it came from. If you can receive at Kinko's, that might work best.